Joe Schiller Wrote:
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> In the same way cultures can and
> do have gender identities.

I can see why you're struggling with it -- there are almost no examples of cultures where women dominated or ruled, except perhaps in more modern times when a queen (like England's Elizabeth) rose to power. However, the rest of society did not reflect this gendered change... women in power were and are still a very rare thing, even in England.

> Westerners have traditionally identified with
> masculinity and therefor exhibit characteristics
> associated with masculinity like aggression.

Females are also aggressive, and display it (because of cultural training) in different ways. However, as any teacher can tell you, fights between women are often worse than fights between men. The guys will smack at each other until someone is downed or hurt... but the women go out for blood and can be hard to separate.

Kipling said (in his poem, "Female of the Species") that it was evolutionary (he didn't use that term) because females bore the young and had to be ready to defend the little ones with their lives.

There are a very few notable female war leaders... Boedicca was one, and Hatshepsut, and I know that there was a famous African queen who was a powerful empire builder.

> The importance of identifying psychological gender
> should be apparent to anyone who has a need to
> understand another individual.

Mmmmmmm... I dunno. You could get swept up in that and miss other things about them.


> violent methods. In addition the masculine is
> associated with the immaterial for complex and
> generally unconscious reasons, so this would lead
> to spiritual art.

But it's women who fill the spirituality movements.

However, before you go attributing this to gender, I should point out that spiritual movements are empowering movements and are more compelling to those who have little social or political or personal power (and those who suffer from depression or have unfortunate life circumstances) than to those who are powerful in many ways.

> If, in studying an ancient
> culture, Egypt for example, one discovers
> elaborate spiritual art, one would expect a
> warlike culture.

May I offer as a counterpoint the Australian Aborigines, with an elaborate Dreamtime spiritual world construct... and who haven't conducted many wars at all.

... a few pennies for your thoughts.




(BTW, I am one of those women who can be highly aggressive... at one time I took the West Texas' women's championship for foil (fencing... swordfighting) and was professionally ranked at chess.)